A lot of work to do.......

I take a different view. The ground has been maintained before, and seems to be in good heart, I would get it all under cultivation. Winter, except when too wet to work the land, is the best time to cultivate the soil. If there is space enough for the machinery I would get it ploughed (not rotavated). Ploughing will bury the top inch or so into the previous furrow, thus burying the weed seeds on/near the surface. If I was to dig it by hand I would do much the same - use a spade to strip the top inch and chuck that into the bottom of the digging trench.

By the Spring the frosts, if we get any this winter!, will have broken down the clods and it will be easy to get a fine tilth.

For a first-time gardener the bit-by-bit strategy is sound, but I think for a seasoned gardener a better route is to get it all under cultivation - with mechanical help if appropriate

 

I would recommend doing that on an on-going basis (perhaps less so in Winter though). I pee on mine every evening when I close the greenhouse (in Spring / Summer). Draught is good ... but you might need to give thought to how conspicuous, or otherwise!, the location of your compost heap is

 

That's at least 2 year's weed seeds, and more if it was neglected before they took it on, so I suspect any ground cleared will be immediately smothered by weed seedlings. When I've taken on plots like that I divide them into 4m wide beds, use mulch extensively, only leave a small amount uncovered (except for spuds) and try and get everything to a decent size growing in modules or pots so they've got a head start on the weeds when they're planted out. It's heart breaking to have all your tiny seedlings smothered by faster growing weeds.

I grow tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, pumpkins, beans, sweetcorn and strawberries through mulch after strimming, rotavating (twice in hot weather helps burn the weeds up), raking level then pegging the sheets down with U shaped bits of fencing straining wire. This year I've got half my autumn garlic planted through mulch, but wont know how successful that is until the summer.

Here's a few pics of the last plot I took on:

I didn't bother weeding but rotavated straight through the weeds


After raking level and trimming edges


At the end of the season, after my cordon tomatoes had been pulled up


What it looked like under the sheet at the end of the season. (It could have been left down to keep it weed free over winter/spring)


One of my strawberry beds (taken this morning and looking rather tatty, but the 300 or so potted up runners in a polytunnel look much better).






P.S. A 1m wide strip of Mypex around a polytunnel will keep it weed free and allow water to pass through so the ground wont dry out and develop a giant crack where the cover has been buried.

 

It seems like you've got a decent sized shed, three compost bins and a water barrel FOC.

That's a real boon. I have heavy clay that stays cold for longer, delays cultivation when it's wet and then suddenly bakes solid when it warms up.

A few pics of what's growing for ID purposes might be interesting.

There's probably a rhubarb patch on it somewhere. I've seen many take on an allotment whilst a highly productive patch has been hiding underground and make their bonfire on top of it.

P.S. What are those 'fences' for - is there a rabbit problem?

 

Phew - that's a fair sized plot Nate.
excellent - thanks for the vid update - loved it,
Jenny

 

I've got pidgeons, rabbits, voles, rats, moles, shrews, mice and muntjacs

 

Hire a [big!!] chipper for the day maybe?

It will chop up the weed roots, but I'm sure you know that. Gives you a flying start, and so long as you can keep on top of the pernicious weeds in the first season "Never let them see a Sunday" I expect they will be donefor thereafter. I would go for a walk-behind self-propelled cultivator, rather than a rotavator where you take the wheels off and just use the cultivators for digging and propulsion. I find it much easier to get them to dig in.

 

Nate,
stop tempting me with these all these piccies
- I feel a box of matches coming on.....